Racist Dutch Santa Claus

A British man is being accused of committing eight-counts of sexual assault, viagra 60mg including sexual activity, salve on his step-daughter from the age of 12 to 16. This was the beginning of my original trial report. But despite avid attempts to follow the guidelines about reporting on these issues, I still felt like I was doing something wrong.

I sat down and took out my notepad as quietly as I could, making sure my phone was off and out of sight. The courtroom was accented with raised levels and enclosures, wooden finishing and screens. The judge walked in- we stood. The judge sat down- we sat. Everything had become tense. It was made very clear by the judge, that the jury must “put aside emotions and base decisions on fact.” This a rational requirement. But can these requirements truly be applied to such irrational cases?

The rape trial began. We were told that the claimant said she was “scared to tell anyone” and that “he [accused] told her to keep it a secret”, this made me think of what it must have taken for her to step forward after many years of suffering. 30- 40% of offenders reoffend within 20 years, and even these numbers aren’t accurate, because not all cases are reported. This must be a haunting reality for victims of rape many will experience fear and psychological distress. But it raises the question, is this the reason why more women don’t come forward? Is anonymity in the media enough to protect them?

As journalists, we do not simply report facts (some more disturbing than others) but we often tell a story to engage our readers. We try to report incidents of rape in a way that is nurturing, and that does not resort to salacious details or expose those who have had horrible experiences to further trauma. But can we really be successful at doing it?

Liberateyourself.co.uk is a platform about people’s experiences with a range of issues, such as mental health, disabilities and include ‘survivor’ stories. I read an article from a victim of rape and her perspective on the article titled, ‘Why I didn’t and won’t report my rape.’ She said that one of the reasons was, ‘…because I will be victim blamed very, very publicly.’ I had never come across this term, but ‘victim blaming’ is ‘when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them.’

There have been court cases in the media that have reported details of victim’s sexual relationships, drinking tendencies and other personal information that is not explicitly relevant (i.e. Ched Evans trial.) This can be traumatic, embarrassing and hurtful for the victim. In many cases the victims are led to change their identities, some are even ‘repeatedly hunted down and exposed by Twitter trolls.’

Ched Evans trial

In the rape case, the claimant was 16 when she “realised it wasn’t okay” and formally came forward at the age of 19. The logic goes that if more survivors reported rape, more rapists will be convicted, and therefore be prevented from raping in the future. This is an idyllic projection, however the reality is many women do not come forward straight away due to varying emotional and psychological reasons. This often leads to being a lack of evidence to convict the defendant, which in itself is a traumatic experience. So what makes people think that concealing the identity of a victim in a national news story would make them feel any more ‘secure’ or ‘protected’?

Regulation is becoming a greater influence in the media, specifically in journalism. Regulation does its best to protect those under the ‘spotlight’. I am aware that not reporting these issues is unlikely to happen. However, media professionals must take time to consider to write with empathy. And as spectators, we should also think about our reaction to these stories on our own social media platforms.

Written by Stephanie Malcom

Twitter @mmc_Steph
A British man is being accused of committing eight-counts of sexual assault, remedy I still felt like I was doing something wrong.

I sat down and took out my notepad as quietly as I could, making sure my phone was off and out of sight. The courtroom was accented with raised levels and enclosures, wooden finishing and screens. The judge walked in- we stood. The judge sat down- we sat. Everything had become tense. It was made very clear by the judge, that the jury must “put aside emotions and base decisions on fact.” This a rational requirement. But can these requirements truly be applied to such irrational cases?

The rape trial began. We were told that the claimant said she was “scared to tell anyone” and that “he [accused] told her to keep it a secret”, this made me think of what it must have taken for her to step forward after many years of suffering. 30- 40% of offenders reoffend within 20 years, and even these numbers aren’t accurate, because not all cases are reported. This must be a haunting reality for victims of rape many will experience fear and psychological distress. But it raises the question, is this the reason why more women don’t come forward? Is anonymity in the media enough to protect them?

As journalists, we do not simply report facts (some more disturbing than others) but we often tell a story to engage our readers. We try to report incidents of rape in a way that is nurturing, and that does not resort to salacious details or expose those who have had horrible experiences to further trauma. But can we really be successful at doing it?

Liberateyourself.co.uk is a platform about people’s experiences with a range of issues, such as mental health, disabilities and include ‘survivor’ stories. I read an article from a victim of rape and her perspective on the article titled, ‘Why I didn’t and won’t report my rape.’ She said that one of the reasons was, ‘…because I will be victim blamed very, very publicly.’ I had never come across this term, but ‘victim blaming’ is ‘when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them.’

There have been court cases in the media that have reported details of victim’s sexual relationships, drinking tendencies and other personal information that is not explicitly relevant (i.e. Ched Evans trial.) This can be traumatic, embarrassing and hurtful for the victim. In many cases the victims are led to change their identities, some are even ‘repeatedly hunted down and exposed by Twitter trolls.’

Ched Evans trial

In the rape case, the claimant was 16 when she “realised it wasn’t okay” and formally came forward at the age of 19. The logic goes that if more survivors reported rape, more rapists will be convicted, and therefore be prevented from raping in the future. This is an idyllic projection, however the reality is many women do not come forward straight away due to varying emotional and psychological reasons. This often leads to being a lack of evidence to convict the defendant, which in itself is a traumatic experience. So what makes people think that concealing the identity of a victim in a national news story would make them feel any more ‘secure’ or ‘protected’?

Regulation is becoming a greater influence in the media, specifically in journalism. Regulation does its best to protect those under the ‘spotlight’. I am aware that not reporting these issues is unlikely to happen. However, media professionals must take time to consider to write with empathy. And as spectators, we should also think about our reaction to these stories on our own social media platforms.

Written by Stephany Malcom

Twitter @mmc_Steph
A British man is being accused of committing eight-counts of sexual assault, there including sexual activity, cialis 40mg on his step-daughter from the age of 12 to 16. This was the beginning of my original trial report. But despite avid attempts to follow the guidelines about reporting on these issues, I still felt like I was doing something wrong.

I sat down and took out my notepad as quietly as I could, making sure my phone was off and out of sight. The courtroom was accented with raised levels and enclosures, wooden finishing and screens. The judge walked in- we stood. The judge sat down- we sat. Everything had become tense. It was made very clear by the judge, that the jury must “put aside emotions and base decisions on fact.” This a rational requirement. But can these requirements truly be applied to such irrational cases?

The rape trial began. We were told that the claimant said she was “scared to tell anyone” and that “he [accused] told her to keep it a secret”, this made me think of what it must have taken for her to step forward after many years of suffering. 30- 40% of offenders reoffend within 20 years, and even these numbers aren’t accurate, because not all cases are reported. This must be a haunting reality for victims of rape many will experience fear and psychological distress. But it raises the question, is this the reason why more women don’t come forward? Is anonymity in the media enough to protect them?

As journalists, we do not simply report facts (some more disturbing than others) but we often tell a story to engage our readers. We try to report incidents of rape in a way that is nurturing, and that does not resort to salacious details or expose those who have had horrible experiences to further trauma. But can we really be successful at doing it?

Liberateyourself.co.uk is a platform about people’s experiences with a range of issues, such as mental health, disabilities and include ‘survivor’ stories. I read an article from a victim of rape and her perspective on the article titled, ‘Why I didn’t and won’t report my rape.’ She said that one of the reasons was, ‘…because I will be victim blamed very, very publicly.’ I had never come across this term, but ‘victim blaming’ is ‘when the victim of a crime or any wrongful act is held entirely or partially responsible for the harm that befell them.’

There have been court cases in the media that have reported details of victim’s sexual relationships, drinking tendencies and other personal information that is not explicitly relevant (i.e. Ched Evans trial.) This can be traumatic, embarrassing and hurtful for the victim. In many cases the victims are led to change their identities, some are even ‘repeatedly hunted down and exposed by Twitter trolls.’

Ched Evans trial

In the rape case, the claimant was 16 when she “realised it wasn’t okay” and formally came forward at the age of 19. The logic goes that if more survivors reported rape, more rapists will be convicted, and therefore be prevented from raping in the future. This is an idyllic projection, however the reality is many women do not come forward straight away due to varying emotional and psychological reasons. This often leads to being a lack of evidence to convict the defendant, which in itself is a traumatic experience. So what makes people think that concealing the identity of a victim in a national news story would make them feel any more ‘secure’ or ‘protected’?

Regulation is becoming a greater influence in the media, specifically in journalism. Regulation does its best to protect those under the ‘spotlight’. I am aware that not reporting these issues is unlikely to happen. However, media professionals must take time to consider to write with empathy. And as spectators, we should also think about our reaction to these stories on our own social media platforms.

Written by Stephany Malcolm

Twitter @mmc_Steph
Having lived in the UK the whole of my life (almost), sildenafil it is sometimes referred to as the biggest children holiday in the year. It all starts on the second Saturday of November where Sinterklaas travels to a city in the Netherlands from Spain and yearly, he choses a different harbour to arrive in around Holland, so that children all over the Netherlands have a chance to meet him.

Here’s where it gets a bit controversial. Sinterklaas travels with his servants called Zwarte Piet, which translates to Black Pete. The Black Pete’s travel around with Sinterklaas to give out presents to the little children and annually, the white people participating as the servants, paint their faces black, wear servant likes clothes, frizzy wigs, paint their mouths with overdrawn red lipstick and big hoop earrings.

I was walking out of the train station in my normal commute from work, when I saw a poster of a white male Sinterklaas surrounded by white male servants in black face. I had never heard of this tradition and honestly was in shock because they resembled so closely to Golligwogs, which were a black fictional character that caused a lot of racist slurs in the late 19th century. When I saw this publicly advertised billboard in the middle of the metro station, in a multi-cultural city of Rotterdam, I just had to do some research. I found out that the holiday is actually so popular that it generates up to 515 million euros each year in merchandise which also feature these black servants.

So how do people view Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands? According to an opinion poll in October 2013, 91% of the Dutch population voted to keep the tradition of Black Pete. Many believe that the Sinterklaas festival is simply an innocent children celebration and a part of their culture. However, annually protestors gather at the Sinterklaas celebrations to fight against Zwarte Piet. Protestors believe that Black Petes afro hair, black skin, red lips and gold earrings represent an offensive character of racial stereotypes symbolising the era when the Netherlands exploited slaves. The protestors are a minority to the significant portion of the Duch public who are for the character Black Pete, and this can be seen by Jerry Afriyie, an activist and leader of the ‘Zwart Piete is racist’ campaign stating that “What we are fighting is institutional racism, approved by the government, approved by the police, approved by professionals and approved by schools. It is embedded so much into the society that it makes it very difficult to bring changes to it.”

Although many view the character of Black Pete as a cherished part of the Dutch culture, many children of colour are said by the national children’s obudswoman, to experience discrimination in their daily lives particularly around the time of Sinterklaas. Ngina expressed her experience of discrimination in her recent instagram post, which highlights the impact of offensive stereotypes and how a character can serve as a basis for racial bullying.

Dutch politicians have tried to avoid addressing the controversy of Zwarte Piet, and that is largely part of the problem. When discussing the issue of Sinterklaas, the Priminister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte stated it would not be Sinterklaas without Black Pete. Geert Wilders, another Dutch politician, also expressed his views by saying there should be a law in place to ensure the character Zwarte Piete is presented exactly how he is. A pro-immigrant party counter-acted these arguments by encouraging the nation to reckon with their multi-cultural identity of the Netherlands by including a museum on the history of slavery and through the abolishment of the Black Pete figure.

In July 2014, the Amsterdam Court ruled that Piet was a negative stereotype to black people, ultimately giving the Mayor of the Netherlands six weeks to remove the Black Pete character from any celebrations. A few months later, the Netherlands highest administrative court overturned the ruling, just in time for the holiday. Following this, in August 2015, the U.N. Committee in Geneva called on the Dutch government to get rid of the aspect of black pete which promotes black stereotypes.

Although the Dutch gouvernment as a whole is yet to make major changes to the festival of Sinterklaas nationally.  Last year, Dutch primary schools abolished the offensive marking of Black Pete during the Sinterklaas holiday, this included wearing afro wigs, black face, red lips and gold hoops. In addition, a new version of Black Pete has emerged called Chimney Pete. The character is covered in chimney soot and without any stereotypical features seen in Black Pete. RTL one of the nations biggest networks in the region also stated in October 2016, that they would only air Chimney Pete for the 2016 holidays.

In spite of a dominating percentage of the population who refuse to associate Zwarte Piet with racism, change is evident and as expected, changing a tradition that is rooted back to the 1850’s will inevitably take time. However the conversation is at the forefront of political debate and this can be seen in the Washington Post recent article titled ‘The Dutch are slowly recognising that their blackface tradition of Zwarte Piet is racist and weird’.

Written by

Tish from Relevant Waffle (www.relevantwaffle.com)

instagram @latticiam

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